I saw the first 2 ANG Block 30s arrive here at the 451st EAW. Held my hands up fists clenched in a salute to their arrival after cursory inspection. Pilot returned the same gesture. Louder on take-off. Especially during my sleep period in the tent. The sound of FREEDOM!

First photo of #87-0225 from 124 FS showing mission markings. Anyone know if theirs been a swap out as 0225 wasn't part of the original deployment.

Maj. Todd Pierce, a pilot with the 451st EFS, prepares F-16C block 30 #87-0225 from the 124th FS before a combat mission at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan on April 5th, 2012. [USAF photo by SSgt. David Salanitri]

Maj. Todd Pierce, a pilot with the 451st EFS, inspects the bombs and missiles on F-16C block 30 #86-0327 from the 124th FS at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan on April 5th, 2012. [USAF photo by SSgt. David Salanitri]

MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, SC (WIS) - Before the sun ever came up over Columbia, more than a dozen F-16 fighter jets from McEntire Joint National Guard Base took to the skies en route to Afghanistan to support Operation Enduring Freedom.

More than a dozen F-16 fighter pilots from the 169th fighter wing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base will join more than 400 other service men and women from the 169th who are already in Afghanistan to provide air support to troops stationed on the ground.

The servicemen and women are scheduled to be deployed for four months.

This is the group's largest deployment since Operation Desert Storm back in January 1991 and the fourth major deployment of the planes since 2002.

Unfortunately, many of these pilots are leaving behind families. Lt. Col. Brent Allen was with his family in the final moments before leaving.

"Leaving the family never gets easier, but I know that they support what I'm doing 110 percent, just like the great community we have here in Columbia," Allen said. "We know that they support us and they support our families. It's a great place to live. It's a great place to serve and we're happy to be a part of the unit."

MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, SC (WIS) - Before the sun ever came up over Columbia, more than a dozen F-16 fighter jets from McEntire Joint National Guard Base took to the skies en route to Afghanistan to support Operation Enduring Freedom.

More than a dozen F-16 fighter pilots from the 169th fighter wing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base will join more than 400 other service men and women from the 169th who are already in Afghanistan to provide air support to troops stationed on the ground.

The servicemen and women are scheduled to be deployed for four months.

This is the group's largest deployment since Operation Desert Storm back in January 1991 and the fourth major deployment of the planes since 2002.

Unfortunately, many of these pilots are leaving behind families. Lt. Col. Brent Allen was with his family in the final moments before leaving.

"Leaving the family never gets easier, but I know that they support what I'm doing 110 percent, just like the great community we have here in Columbia," Allen said. "We know that they support us and they support our families. It's a great place to live. It's a great place to serve and we're happy to be a part of the unit."

TheBostonChannel wrote:F-16s Forced To Make Emergency LandingFighter Jets Land Safely On Cape Cod

UPDATED: 5:09 pm EDT April 12, 2012

BOURNE, Mass. -- Two F-16 jets from a South Carolina National Guard unit on a deployment to Afghanistan made emergency landings Thursday at the Otis Air National Guard Base.

The two jets had engine problems, Coast Guard Capt. David Throop told the Cape Cod Times.

"Everyone is down safely on the ground," Throop said.

The second jet with an apparent emergency landed at about 9:15 a.m. The other emergency landing was about a half-hour earlier.

The Massachusetts Military Reservation Fire Department was called to the scene, Throop said.

The jets were on their way to Afghanistan from South Carolina on a deployment, according to a spokesman with the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina National Guard. The jets are now being checked and crews interviewed about why the pilots were concerned with the planes.

A spokesman said it's not unusual if there is a concern to divert to the nearest air station, and in this case that station was Otis.

Fighter jets, once a common sight and sound over the skies of Cape Cod, created a stir as they flew over Falmouth, Sandwich and Mashpee.

"My daughter wanted to know if we are being invaded," Sandwich resident Pat Hogan said.

USAF F-16C block 52 #93-0549 from the 157th FS sits on the flight line before taking off in the early morning of April 12th, 2012 at McEntire JNGB before deploying to Afghanistan. [USAF photo by SMSgt. Edward Snyder]

Attachments

Maj. Richard Noble performs preflight checks in a F-16C Block 52 jet on April 12, 2012, at McEntire JNGB in South Carolina before deploying to Afghanistan. [USAF photo by SSgt. Jorge Intriago]

A1C Robert Spence, a crew chief with the 169th AMXS, stands by to marshal an F-16C Block 52 aircraft on April 12, 2012, at McEntire JNGB before deploying to Afghanistan. [USAF photo by SSgt. Jorge Intriago]

Iowa National Guard fighter pilots are attacking Taliban insurgents with bombs or scaring them off with the thunder of jet engines, their commander said from Afghanistan today.

About 300 members of the Air Guard’s 132nd Fighter Wing are serving a two-month deployment to southern Afghanistan. The unit flies F-16 jets, which are flying numerous missions from Kandahar Airfield.

Lt. Col. Travis Acheson of West Des Moines, the top officer on the deployment, said the Iowa planes are mainly assigned to protect U.S. and Afghan troops patrolling on the ground. “Those folks are coming under fire every day, and if they need air power, if they need air cover, we are there to provide them that blanket of security,” Acheson told reporters in a conference call.

The ground troops often are accompanied by Air Force members, who help guide the fighter jets to their targets, Acheson said. The pilots use the coordinates to ensure their bombs hit the enemy without endangering friendly forces and civilians, Acheson said. Even though the jets are traveling hundreds of miles per hour, he said, the bombs they drop hit within 30 feet of their targets. Some of the bombs can be aimed with lasers to hit a moving motorcycle carrying insurgents, he said.

“It’s very critical in conflicts in this day and age that we carry precision-guided munitions, because it’s very different from World War II,” in which waves of bombers would try to hit one target, he said. “We absolutely have to have that bomb go where it needs to go. … We absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, have collateral damage or any fear of injuring any of the friendly forces.”

Pilots sometimes refer to the modern rules of engagement as “handcuffs,” Acheson said, but the precautions are necessary in a war where insurgents often fight near civilians.

In many cases, the fighter jets fly right over the heads of insurgents to try to intimidate them. “Sometimes it’s just us making noise, and the bad guys will disengage,” said 1st Lt. Ryan Stott of Jefferson. “I’ve actually had guys on the radio say they were nervous and weren’t feeling real comfortable, but as soon as we checked in overhead, making the jet noise… the guys’ spirits will lift up, and for me as a young pilot, that’s a very rewarding mission.”

All of the Iowans volunteered for the deployment. About 250 of them are involved in fixing and preparing the jets, which require 10 to 12 hours of maintenance work for every hour they’re in the air. The planes are nearly 30 years old, so they require extra care. Among the challenges is to ensure that the plane’s engines don’t inhale debris from the rocky, dusty environment of southern Afghanistan. Dozens of Iowans scour the tarmac several times a day, cleaning it of every loose rock, said Maj. Trenton Twedt of Roland, who leads maintenance for the unit. “When I say clean, you can’t imagine. This is cleaner than probably anybody’s driveway,” he said. “There is not a pebble on it.”

The Des Moines unit is slated to lose its F-16s under national budget cuts, which Iowa leaders are seeking to have reversed. If the cuts go through, this could be the unit’s last overseas deployment. In the future, the unit would control unmanned drones, which can be flown from the United States.

Twedt said members talk a bit about the situation, but not much. “Right now, we’re trying not to get wrapped up in what’s going on back home,” he said. “…The big thing is focus, finish the mission, finish strong, come home in one piece, hug our families and shake a lot of hands, and then we’ll deal with that back there.”

Some of the F-16s came from Air Guard units in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., which preceded the Iowans in Afghanistan. The Iowa pilots will fly all of them back to the United States when their deployment ends.

Anybody got a photo of ,"GRITS", the VTANG pilot that flew with the Block 30s at KAF. I saw him at Northline last week. I launched and recovered him with The Green Mountain Boys. Civil Engineering Officer truned F-16 pilot.